Year

Location

Tragedy

Both of the Ricketts Equestrian Circus Amphitheaters
burned to the ground; no injuries or deaths of any kind occurred.The
owner was bankrupted however because of the two losses.

1868

Bridgeport, CT

Barnum and London winter quarters caught fire; no loss of human
life but nearly all animals were lost.

1901

Kansas City, MO

Ringling Brothers' Circus Little Top (sideshow tent) burned
to the ground; no injuries or deaths of any kind occurred.

1910

Schenedy, NY

Barnum and Bailey Circus Big Top, with over 15,000 people inside
caught fire. Everyone got out before the tent burned to the ground. No injuries
or deaths of any kind occurred.

1912

Sterling, IL

Wind carried a piece of burning barn to the Big Top of the Ringling
Brothers' Circus just before a performance. The Big Top burned to the
ground. No injuries or deaths of any kind occurred.

1914

Cleveland, OH

43 railway cars owned by the Ringling Brothers Circus caught
fire and burned to the ground. No injuries or deaths of any kind occurred.

1916

Huntsville, AL

The Ringling Brothers Circus baggage stock tent burned to the
ground. 40 draft horses died in the flames and 40 more were injured so badly
that the decision was made to put them down.

1918

Ivanhoe, IN

A stalled and fully loaded Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train was
struck from behind by an empty (except for a sleepy engineer) troop train.
The wreck smashed five sleeping cars and started a fire. At least 85 circus
personnel died; possibly more, since many ended up missing and many bodies
were charred beyond recognition.

1940

Rochester, IN

Winter quarters of the Cole Bros. Circus burned to the ground.
There was no loss of human life but over 18 animals died; 2 elephants, 2
zebras, 2 llamas, 6 lions ( 2 adult males, 2 lionesses and 2 cubs), 2 leopards,
2 audads, a sacred Indian cow, a pygmy hippo, and an unknown number of
monkeys.

1941

Atlanta, GA

11 elephants of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey
Circus died from arsenic poisoning. Some older circus hands suspected
a chemical plant in Charlotte, NC was the cause; in the 30s, several grazing
elephants tethered next to it had gotten sick but lived.

1942

Cleveland, OH

The menagerie tent of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey
Circus burned to the ground. There was no loss of human life, but 45
animals died or were put down because of their injuries; 13 camels (all that
the circus had), 9 zebras (again, all that the circus had), 5 lions, 2 tigers,
4 elephants, 2 giraffes, 2 gnus, 1 puma, 2 white fallow deer, 1 axis deer,
2 ceylon donkeys, 1 chimpanzee, and 1 ostrich. Several animal handlers suffered
burns in their attempts to save the animals.

A nylon big top burns to the ground; 320 persons were reported killed.
Later, a disgruntled employee admitted to setting the fire with an older
accomplice who doused the area in gasoline.

1994

Lakeland, FL

A circus train derailed. Two circus employees died.

In addition to fires and train wrecks, circuses in the past had to
worry about "blowdowns" (big tops toppling over in high winds).
In 1945, for example, a twister caused a blowdown of the big top of the Ringling
Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus while it was playing in Dallas Texas.
Ringmaster Fred Bradna was seriously injured and retired soon after the
incident.